University of Adelaide: University community excels at Commonwealth Games

University of Adelaide students and alumni struck gold with outstanding performances at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.

Leading the way were cyclists Maeve Plouffe and Sophie Edwards, who were part of the record-breaking Women’s 4000m Team Pursuit team.

The Australian quartet set a new Commonwealth record in the final with a time of 4:12.234 to take gold ahead of New Zealand.

Maeve added a silver medal to her collection in the Women’s 3000m Individual Pursuit, finishing second to New Zealand’s Bryony Botha in the gold medal final.

In women’s rugby 7s, former University of Adelaide Roma’s players Demi Hayes and Lily Dick were part of the gold-medal winning Australian team.

The Australians defeated Fiji 22-12 in the final.

Another alumnus, Paul Burnett, combined with Chris McHugh to win the men’s beach volleyball event.

The pair survived a three-set thriller to prevail 17-21, 21-17, 20-18 against Canadian duo Sam Schachter and Daniel Dearing.

Nikita Hains delivered a couple of impressive efforts in her two diving events, finishing sixth in the women’s synchronised 10m platform with Emily Boyd, and eighth in the women’s 10m platform.

Matthew Northcott was a guide for Jake Fehlberg in the Para lawn bowls, with the pair narrowly going down to England in the bronze medal playoff.